Computing devices such as personal computers, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, cellular phones, Net appliances and the like are commonly used to create and edit documents and messages. Creating documents and messages on a computing device typically requires the user to input the text using an input device (e.g., keyboard, pointing device, mouse, voice) that is associated with the computing device. The inputted text is then displayed on a screen or monitor for providing user feedback.
The creating and editing processes require mapping the input (e.g., a key on a keyboard) to a glyph or a displayable form. For example, in a conventional computer system using English alphabets/characters, when the user types the key such as the letter “A” on the keyboard, a code such as “65” is sent to the computing device. The computing device converts or maps the code “65” into the glyph or the displayable form of “A” and renders it on the screen or monitor.
The computing device requires both the mapping and displaying mechanisms. The mapping mechanism maps the keyboard input into the glyph or displayable form, and the displaying mechanism uses the glyph or font to represent the characters in the document or message. The mapping mechanism and a set of glyphs or font are generally installed on the computing device before performing the document creating/editing processes. For example, in the personal computer, an application for performing mapping and the font in the language that the user desires to use are generally installed by the user on the computer. In other devices such as pagers, the application and the font are permanently pre-installed therein.
In some cases, the application and/or the font are not installed on computing devices because of their design characteristics and/or limited memory capacity. In this case, the user cannot use such devices to create documents or messages. One such example is a computing device that is designed for an English-speaking user and the user desires to create a document using a non-English language such as Chinese.
As described above, conventional text creating/editing systems and methods have many limitations and shortcomings due to the design characteristics or limited memory capacity of computing devices. Accordingly, there is a need for a text creating/editing system and method for overcoming the above-described problems. There is also a need for a system and method that allows a computing device to dynamically configure itself so that it can be used for creating/editing documents regardless of its design characteristics or memory capacity.